The invention relates to a sorting installation for flat mail articles, particularly for letters of varying size and thickness.
A device of this kind is known from EP-C 0 708 691, for example. The sorting mechanism described and represented there is one in which continuously revolving sorting compartments cross a number of parallel sorting pathways. Collecting receptacles for the sorted mail are provided with moving flaps which can be opened in a controllable fashion over the appertaining collection receptacles, so that the mail can drop down into the collection container.
Previously, it was common to place the full receptacle onto a conveyor belt and to replace it with an empty receptacle manually. The full containers were transported on the conveyor belt to a peripheral pick-up station, from where they were delivered to other sorting installations of the operator, for example. It is common to construct such collection receptacles with oblique bottoms in order to facilitate the dropping in of the mail articles from the sorting compartments. In any case, the angle of these bottoms is relatively flat in order to maximize the transport volume of the receptacle.
The object of the invention is achieved by an improvement in a sorting installation with collection receptacles for receiving flat mail articles, the collection receptacles being inserted into output stations and removed therefrom with the aid of at least one automatic exchange mechanism, the receptacles being equipped with handling aids for the exchange mechanism and the collection receptacles being transported to a peripheral mechanism of the installation. The improvement is that full collection receptacles are placed on a transport path of the installation with the aid of the exchange mechanism and are transported on said path to the peripheral mechanism, the peripheral mechanism of the sorting installation being provided with at least one mechanized transfer station at which mail articles can be removed from the collection receptacles and said collection receptacles are provided with transfer aids for the mail articles. The collection receptacle can be optimally adapted in its design to the sorting, changing, and transport processes in the installation without having to give particular attention to its outer dimensions.
The transport receptacles of the operators now no longer require angled bottoms, thus increasing the usable volume of such receptacles. The installation-specific collection containers are reused immediately subsequent to the emptying process, which keeps their total number low relative to the total number of transport receptacles.
Adapting the receptacle to the operating conditions of the installation makes it possible for its outer dimensions to be larger than those of the corresponding transport receptacle, given an equal intake capacity. But since the collection receptacle is not transported further, this does not give rise to economic disadvantages.
The transfer station makes it possible to transfer the mail articles into the transport receptacles automatically with the aid of specific auxiliary mechanisms that can be optimally adapted to the transfer conditions, so that it is possible to transfer the mail articles in an ordered manner.
By virtue of the collection receptacle having smaller lateral dimensions than the transport receptacle and by having a hinged bottom that can be latched, the collection receptacle can be inserted into the transport receptacle at the transfer station and the bottom can be unlatched to deposit the mail articles as the collection receptacle is lifted out of the transport receptacle so that the transfer into the transport receptacles can be performed with a small installation-related outlay.
The transfer station has at least one hand-shaped gripper which lifts old mail articles out of the collection receptacle or container and inserts the articles into the transport receptacle in one complete bundle. The gripper makes it possible to give the collection receptacle a simple design. It can be designed constructionally and in its movement sequences in such a way that the mail articles can be inserted into the transport receptacles with little interference.
The collection receptacle is a box-type collection receptacle or container having at least one side wall with essentially perpendicularly extending slit-shaped openings for gripping fingers of the gripper. The bottom of the collection receptacle has depressions for the gripper fingers that extend in the direction of grasping and the depressions and openings constitute the transfer aids. The collection receptacle favors the gripper""s access to the collected mail articles, with the slit type openings which are open above enabling access from the outside. The bottom of the collection receptacle can be constructed with a comb-shaped cross-section, for example, with rigid type elevations being fashioned between the recesses, on which elevations the mail articles lie. But it is also possible to construct the bottom with pin-shaped elevations in the fashion of a pincushion, which saves material. The gripper fingers can thus be pushed under the mail articles unhindered and can lift them out of the collection receptacle and place them into the transport receptacles in one clutch without internal shifting.
The gripper has downwardly perpendicularly projecting teeth and pivoting fingers, which can be pushed through into the depressions of the bottom through the opening of the receptacle. The side wall opposite the slit-shaped opening has vertically oriented slot-shaped channels which are open to the mail articles and the teeth can be pushed past the mail articles into the channels. The ends of the fingers can be connected or interlocked with the end of the teeth in a detachable way. The comb teeth and the gripper fingers form a stable frame for the mail articles being lifted out. This makes it possible to keep the teeth and the gripper fingers relatively slim, so that the depressions and the channels can be constructed correspondingly flat, and the corresponding wall thicknesses can be kept correspondingly small.
The handling aids of the exchange mechanism are constructed as end walls on the collection receptacles and the gripper elements are arranged centrally at the face sides of the collection receptacles, for example.
The collection receptacle has an oblique bottom which extends at an angle of at least 15xc2x0 in the direction of the forward drive of the sorting receptacles and the bottom is optimally adapted to the motion for dumping the mail articles onto the sorting compartments. The mail articles now slide definitively against one edge and are kept secure in this position. The angle of inclination of the bottom can equal up to 40xc2x0, for example, which raises the height of the collection receptacle accordingly.